Power and Politics at the Colonial Seaside : Leisure in British Hong Kong

A study of the complex role of the seaside as a leisure space in colonial Hong Kong. British sports were in many respects more meaningful in the empire than literature, music, art or religion. They served as an instrument of cultural association and later of cultural change, promoting imperial union and then post-imperial goodwill. Poon analyzes the ways in which British colonists and Chinese leaders, backed by the rhetoric of public health and nationalism respectively, transformed the Hong Kong seaside into a leisure space. She argues that the growing popularity of seaside resorts and sea bathing as a preferred form of leisure activity across the social and ethnic spectrums served an important role in shaping the racial relationship between Westerners and the Chinese population, as well as the Chinese people's perception of the female body and the seaside, during the colonial period. The popularity of British leisure forms in colonial Hong Kong does not necessarily mean the triumph of Britishness". This book will be of great interest to historians with an interest in leisure and in Empire and Colonialism, as well as historians of Colonial Hong Kong and Modern China"--

Author: Shuk-wah Poon

Publisher: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group

Publication Date: May 27, 2024

Number of Pages: NA pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

ISBN-10: 0367648083

ISBN-13: 9780367648084